scooterhulk

Fixing to roll my 77 (gloss white). I want to paint the air dam if possible. I've read that you need to add a flex agent to the paint, but how does that apply when you're doing the ghetto 10 coat job? Or am I forced to either have the air dam sprayed/leave it unpainted?

Bump. white w/ black stripe goes to BCDD I found a wiring diagram for the megasquirt, so I should be in business with the coil. I bought a fuse box to upgrade the fusible links. Meantime, most of this I think I can sort out in the FSM. Anyone know what the blue wire w/ white stripe is in the drivers side firewall area? Comes out of the harness in the same location as the green w/ yellow st that plugs into the brake switch. And if anyone wants to chime in on something before I get the time to find it in the fsm, go for it. thanks.

EDIT: *I'll shorten the post as things on here are confirmed/answered* Prior to posting, I checked the FSM and used the search function. Much of this is an educated guess based on the FSM and what I found searching, but I was hoping someone here could confirm my guesses, and maybe answer the few other questions I have. Finishing the (budget) restoration on my 77. 83 (I believe) zx turbo motor, pretty stock. F54 block, P90 head Intercooled and megasquirted (MS1v3) ZX alternator upgrade No vac advance on distributor. It's controlled by the MS. FYI, the MS was installed 4 yrs ago right after I bought the car. I didn't know as much about them at the time, I had no garage, and had the extra money to spare, so I had it professionally installed. Sadly, the guy who installed it (great guy) had a heart attack and died right after my car left his garage. I suspected my car, but never came forward. So far, no problems with the MS, but I rarely drive the car. So, putting it back together. I have some wiring questions. Gonna start from the drivers side and work our way around clockwise. 1.̶t̶w̶o̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶c̶y̶l̶i̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶m̶a̶l̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶t̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶o̶r̶s̶ - these are not part of the '77 wiring. 2. one female butt connector, under drivers side hood flap. Blue w/ white stripe 3.i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶m̶a̶l̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶p̶o̶r̶t̶i̶o̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶v̶a̶l̶v̶e̶?̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶e̶m̶a̶l̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶t̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶o̶r̶s̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶a̶c̶h̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶i̶t̶.̶.̶.̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶?̶ Got an answer on this. The green wire w/ yellow stripe goes here. 4. coil area wiring (explained below with photo) 5. BCDD vac hose goes to...? Charcoal canister cap? (dist vac advance port---my dist has no vac advance...it had no charcoal canister either when I bought it) 6. I'm not seeing the port on my manifold for the charcoal canister purge. can I just...stick it somewhere on the manifold? 7. I have two small empty ports (pictured) on my intake manifold. Do they go to the AC solenoids (which I just installed from a junk car)? if so, which is which? One has a diaphragm or whatchacall on it. 2. Under the drivers side hood flap, I have two female plugs, one with GREEN/YELLOW STRIPE, the other BLUE/WHITE STRIPE. I already added the missing windshield washer bottle, so that plug is taken care of. The GY goes to the proportioning valve. What's the other one go to? 4. Coil area wiring. Coil negative was loose when I began restoration. Ran like crap, thought it was the coil before I found the loose wire, so I threw in the Accel I had lying around. Car had an AC compressor on it that was completely disconnected - wire and hoses. Wire colors: Blue - coil (-) I checked this with an ohm meter to make sure. It's the blue coil ground. But like I said, when I pulled the coil during restoration, nothing was attached to the negative. There was a few inches of wire on the coil neg that appears to have been twirled around something. On this part of the harness, there are TWO blue wires, I believe the other is for the AC compressor switch. White/black stripe - this was connected to the coil (+). I did this. Okay? It was me. Pretty sure this is why the car ran like hell. I'm fairly certain this goes to the BCDD (which has a hanging black wire) black/white stripe - bare wire, but I believe this is my coil (+) and not the BCDD feed I currently have connected to the coil positive. Reason I believe this? Because of the black/white stripe wire on the coil (+) that is still there, but plugged into the white/black stripe via butt connector. second Blue wire - I believe this goes to the blue AC compressor switch wire, because the other one was a ground. TWO wires with fem. blade connectors, both are black w. blue stripe - I believe these went to the transistor box and should be tucked away. Right? Resistor wire - wasn't run to anything. I attached it to the sheet metal, before it was just hanging. Pretty sure I don't need it, but I am aware there are people who will say otherwise. I'm open for discussion. The pic below shows a section of the harness just ahead of the coil. What you're looking at is the front of the drivers side. 5 wires that I believe now go to nothing. red and green wires - I believe went to the transistor, I've already covered them. white w. black stripe - same color as the BCDD wire from earlier. Guess I'm just wondering what this used to go to. blue w. white stripe - same question. black - haven't checked to see if it's a ground. All of these wires come out of the same opening in the harness. 5. BCDD vac hose - think this goes to the "vac advance" port on the charcoal canister. Currently it has a check valve that allows air to come out of it, but not go into it. 6. Check #7 for a pic of my intake manifold. Maybe I'm just confused, but I don't see the port on my mani that corresponds to the port on others where this connects. 7. Two small ports on the intake manifold. The port on the right had the pass side firewall vac hose plugged into it. That hose is now plugged into the AC solenoids, and the two AC solenoid hoses I believe plug into these ports. Yes? If you made it this far, thanks. James PS - Has anybody wired a fan to the factory thermo switch next to the temp sensor on the water neck?

How much should I sand this chrome?

Hey Vintage Tech, how much do I want to sand on this chrome? I assume I'm just roughing it and not taking the finish off.

Snailed, I worry about the vinyl coming off. I don't have experience with that stuff, but I assume it's like that spray on plastic stuff that some people use to temporarily paint their cars (I can't remember what it's called now). Plastidip I think. I want it to last so I don't have to remove the trim again (ik I should probably powdercoat, but I'm on a budget). Speaking of budget, paint will now be Rustoleum gloss white. Flame me if you want, I'm ready and maybe deserve it for going from an $800 choice to a 27 dollar can of industrial paint. My gf is in grad school and the commute is killing her, so I've suddenly decided we should move an hr away so it's not so hard on her. I rolled a 78 Yota pickup this spring, and it came out pretty awesome. So, I figure what the heck. Plus, I pissed off my painter friend, and since I've never sprayed before, I'm gonna do what I know and roll it. So, Tony D, I think now I can paint the car for cheaper than the shop Vintage-Tech, thanks for the step-by-step. I'll paint mine that way, and maybe I can post up some pics when its done. I apologize for not being on this thread in awhile. I wasn't getting emails telling me I had posts, so I stumbled onto my old thread and noticed I had more replies. Wasn't trying to be impolite. Thank you all for your help. Now to the laboratory...

"That said, I do all my own painting. I like it. I'd rather do a bad job myself paying for my own education, than pay for someone else's just to save me headache. If I just wanted to spend money there's a million hobbies I could have had. I love cars because I GET INVOLVED, which is fun!" I agree. My welding improved a lot working on this car. I didn't think I could do it when I started. I'd kinda like to do it myself because it'd be fun, I think I can do it, and I'd save a buck. That said, I had ES paint two cars before, and I just didn't like it. I had an old BMW that was ready to paint, all they had to do was mask and shoot. It looked okay, but there was overspray and it was thin in spots, but smooth. Maybe it was just my own experience. Different people do that job, of course. I won't trash ES because people wouldn't have told me beforehand they did a good job if they hadn't done a good job before. I've got a good (paint)gun and a garage. We'll see what happens. But, if it looks like crap, I suppose I can take some pride in having been the one that made it look like crap haha.

God, I don't wanna do Earl Scheib, especially if I've ripped it apart and put the work into it I have. I removed the fenders, hood, headlight buckets, all the glass, everything. I think it's stuck there until I paint it. I'm assuming the Subaru Satin White Pearl can be had for a lot less than $850. I'll look into it tomorrow.

Thanks. I'll have someone price powder coating them then. I think right now I wanna do window frames, door handles and locks. I'm pretty sure the car's gonna end up white (originally a metallic blue/green). Has anyone done locks before? Will there be a problem with baking the lock cylinder? I also have the factory 5 hole mags (I can't remember what they're called, but they're the same wheels that are on every Zamboni I've ever seen...) with aftermarket chrome spinner centercaps. I was thinking about either coating them (eventually?) black as well or polishing them and rechroming the spinner centercaps. So, currently it'll end up white with black chrome, black 240z (fiberglass) bumper, black louvers, shaved rear bumper. Any thoughts? And if anyone has a recommendation for a white paint, throw it in. I LOVED the 2011 BMW mineral white metallic, but holy s**t it's $850 a gallon. If I'm gonna try to do it myself, I just don't know if I can risk $850... Thanks for the input.

This topis has bound to be beaten to death, but I can't find anything after searching with various word combinations. I've seen several S30's with black window frames, and I want mine done the same way. The car is mostly stripped for restoration, and the window frames have been removed. I am on a bit of a budget, and would like to do as much of this myself as possible. In other words, I'm hoping to avoid powdercoating. Is there a method or product that will give me a good finish and stay on indefinitely? If you've done this yourself, I'd like to see a pic of yours if you have one. Thanks James

Thanks guys. I'll pick up that gasket from O'Reilly's and see what happens.

I've got an exhaust leak under the hood of my 77....I have an 83 turbo swap and a nasty exhaust leak that makes a loud ticking whenever I accellerate. Not to mention the fumes, it's not fun to drive right now. The PO, or whoever last worked on this turbo, didn't put any lock washers on the turbo/exhaust manifold nuts and they all backed out, causing the gasket to blow out there. I'd like to go ahead and to it all while I have the intake and exhaust manifolds off. I have intake/exhaust manifold gaskets, what do I need for the turbo? And where can I find it? James